From the UK’s Bookseller comes news that the UK bookstore Foyles is to launch its own subscription service.
No, not for ebooks, but for print.
Back in the 1950s-60s the Foyles Book Club was a central part of the London bookstore’s sales strategy, and to cash in on the up and coming Christmas season (we Brits don’t call it “the Holidays”) Foyles have revived the idea, this time calling it “A Year In Books.”
The “personally curated” subscription packages will range from £135 to £250 per year.
Last year the seven-store Foyles operation, which opened a new flagship store in London’s Charing Cross Road in 2014, stocking 200,000 titles on four miles (6.5 km) of shelving, saw a 4.3% like-for-like sales boost for Christmas 2016 compared to 2015 and a 7% increase in print sales over the year.
Foyles, like its bigger counterpart Waterstones, conceded the ebook game to Amazon long ago, and now focusses on what bricks & m0rtar bookstores do best – selling printed books.
An despite the problems faced by Barnes & Noble across the pond, bookstores in the UK seem to be doing well so far.
But that begs the question, for how long?
And how long before Amazon starts opening bricks & mortar bookstores in the UK?
